Unearned Love

Gentian violets are rare.   Just a few show up this time of year on a hillside that I pass on my morning walk.
Luke moves from the hard demands of chapter 14 to the unearned love of chapter 15's story of the Prodigal Son.  Years ago when I put together a very short simple summary of Catholic beliefs for a troubled teenager with no background in the faith and not much schooling, I called it "Unearned Love."  If I could tell him only one thing that Jesus wants him to know, that's it.  You don't have to earn God's love.
The father in the Prodigal Son story is a perfect image of God.  The son comes to his senses and heads home.  "While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion; he ran to him and put his arms around him and kissed him."  No conditions.  Just a wide, loving embrace.
One reason that this story means so much to me is that, until my mid-thirties, I thought that I had to earn God's love.  Religion was effortful.  When the reality of unearned love broke into my awareness, I was blown away.  I've spent the last forty years trying to absorb what that means.
God is Love around me and in me, on the surface of my skin and in the deepest part of my self.  In Love I live and move and have my being.  Each day Love shows me how gracious Love is.